I hope that everybody had a wonderful Holiday Season! Ours was fantastic. This Christmas in particular, my kids got A LOT of board games. It seemed like a lot of the classics were on sale for great deals, sometimes 5 bucks or less, so Santa took advantage and stocked up. Our family loves to play games together. We try to do it at least once a week. Oftentimes, I even try to incorporate life lessons into the games we are playing. For instance, the classic preschool game “Chutes and Ladders” provides a great life lesson. When the little character makes a bad choice, he slips down the slide getting farther away from his ultimate goal (the finish square). On the other hand, when the character makes an exceptionally positive choice, he gets to climb a ladder and receives a boost to his goal. I love the real world application this game provides! As fun as these games are, especially for the kids, there are also many developmental benefits to playing board games.

Shari Nethersole, a physician at Children’s Hospital, Boston, and an instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School said:

There are enormous benefits to these type of games, benefits that don’t necessarily occur so readily from computer and video games and from television. Probably the most important developmental benefit is that all of these games require that children interact and speak with each other. They have to negotiate rules, take turns, correct and challenge each other. Thus they are thinking and problem solving all the time. They can improve their listening and speaking skills. They also have to deal with the emotional consequences of these interactions: handling loss, helping a friend to handle a loss, being a gracious winner. Beyond the social and emotional benefits of these kind of games, most of the games that you mentioned also help work on motor coordination, both fine motor skills and gross motor skills. For kids in the 3 to 8 age group, these motor skills are very important for success and self esteem, both in and out of school. Improved fine motor coordination will help with writing and drawing. Hopscotch and Twister can help with balance, coordination and flexibility. The other benefit to keep in mind is that these games are relatively inexpensive ways to promote skills while encouraging kids to have fun. They are a lot cheaper than video games!

I have also noticed that in most of the board games we have, the kids learn colors, shapes, numbers, and how to count. To me, the benefits are fantastic, and Santa was very wise:).